Crock-Pot® Blog

How to Prep Ahead for Weekday Meals

While some people love channeling their inner chef during the week and whipping up elaborate meals that require multiple steps and appliances, it's not for everyone. In fact, most people wouldn't even have time for creating multi-step meals even if they wanted to. The good news - for all of those who would rather not think twice about preparing a meal - is that there is a simple and effective way to put a meal on the table each night of the week without any hassle or time commitment. The answer is slow cooking.

With these tips and tricks, you can seamlessly prep ahead for weekday dinners in no time at all. Then from Monday through Friday, you can walk in the front door to the aroma of a mouth-watering, homemade meal.

1. Know the Right Recipes
Mastering the art of slow cooking requires only the knowledge that less is more. With just your slow cooker you can accomplish any large meal, casserole or stew to feed a crowd. You can create mouth-watering desserts with little effort and craft any number of unique and creative recipes.

Did you know you could slow cook an entire zesty chicken dinner with just four ingredients? The key to streamlining meal preparation for your slow cooker is to know the quick and easy, limited list of ingredient recipes. With one or two sauces, a main protein and any number of vegetables, you can have a complete meal slow cooking away. Consider these five-minute prep recipes or this list of recipes that require no more than five ingredients.

2. Dice, Chop and Cut
Once you've chosen your recipes - consider choosing one for each night of the week - you can assemble your ingredients. By taking the time to chop, dice, slice and cut on a Sunday afternoon, you'll gain a little more freedom during the week. Plus, you'll have all your ingredients organized and ready to go.

Chopping, slicing and dicing ahead of take can save you on meal prep during the week.

3. Pack, Label and Freeze
While most people know to freeze or refrigerate ingredients in advance, it's always important to remember to label them as well. This is especially true if you plan to prep five different slow-cooked meals in advance. Whether you choose to label your ingredients by recipe title or by day of the week that you plan to enjoy them is up to you.

4. Slow Cook
This last step for prepping ahead for weekday meals showcases the true beauty of slow cooking: All you have to do is open that freezer bag of ingredients, pour them into your Crock-Pot® Programmable Casserole Crock Slow Cooker and set the proper temperature and cook time! Once you've done that you can head out the door with the carefree feeling of not having to give that night's dinner a second thought.